Weekly Update: Nov 22, 2017

My time in New Mexico is coming to an end soon and I’m going to miss views like this one at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. For a sense of scale, that little dot in the lower right (about an inch from the bottom) is an Alto trailer (not mine, but I do know the owner). The Sacramento Mountains are massive things, and I loved walking below them for my week’s stay and watching the light play over them, morning, noon, and night.

Monday was moving day, and three hours of driving due west got me to City of Rocks State Park. I was here earlier in the year, but it was a quick visit and I didn’t do much hiking or exploring, so this time I am rectifying that.

The rock formations here are crazy, and to someone who grew up with earthquakes, I am amazed that the ball of rock in the photo below hasn’t just fallen off at some point in the last, oh, 34.9 million years. Yes, that’s how old these pinnacles are, formed when a very large volcano erupted, and the rocks were weathered since then till they now look like this. The cover photo in this post is a panoramic view of the area surrounding City of Rocks, so you can get a sense of scale of this place.

You can see time written in the rocks: the middle one is really half a rock now, and the ones on either side have serious offsets showing. I could walk around these rocks all day. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what I’m doing this week; I’m just sparing you a thousand pictures of them!

The water here is drawn up from the water table using the old-fashioned western-style windmills, which also make good models for sunset photos.

To all my readers in the USA, have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the day wherever you may find yourself. I am thankful for each of you, and hope you continue to enjoy my adventures.

The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.